Changes

We are definitely experiencing some changes here in the Ruder household. First of all, the weather has started to get really nice again. We've been doing a lot of biking, playing outside, walks, and trips to the park. Starting last week I made the decision to really curb Sofia's pacifier use. She was really not using it much for a while and then all of a sudden I noticed she had it in constantly, and it really affects her speech. I sat down with Sofia and talked about how it was hard to understand her with her nuk in and that from now on she would only be able to use it for nap time and bed time. Of course she smiled and said ok because I'm sure she thought we'd cave. It's been a week and I've held strong, thankfully my five years of teaching has given me the ability to tune out whining pretty well. Sofia still talks about her nuk during the day but I remind her when we are going to use it (but only once) and then I ignore her if she continues to talk about it. I'm SO happy I won't have to deal with this issue with the boys, they have never used a pacifier.

The other big change we have noticed is that the honeymoon period between Sofia and her brothers seems to have ended. Now that they are very mobile she has realize that they can play with toys and her things. We have been working very hard on teaching the concept of "sharing", which I know is extremely hard for a young two year old to grasp. We try to encourage Sofia to offer her brothers a different toy if she wants the one that they are playing with. Besides toys, the love between the three of them continues to grow. Especially now that Everett is so vocal. Whenever he baby babbles Sofia laughs and repeats it back to him or says something else. Sofia also loves to describe what each of the boys are doing during the day. She gets very concerned when she wakes up from her nap and only sees one brother, she always asks about the other. Sofia also loves to give suggestions about what they should be doing (eating, play on floor, walk, etc).

Tim's mom was able to come visit for the day yesterday and boy was it nice. I was able to spend the morning on a date with Sofia. We went a toy shop in Cedarburg, we actually intended to go there for a story time but I got the time wrong. This happens to me a lot since having the twins. I swear my brain is only working at 70% right now. Sofia and I got coffee together and walked around town, it was so sweet. I love my dates with Sofia, I can't wait until we can go get pedicures together and other fun girly things. This morning Tim was home and the boys weren't feeling themselves so I got to take her to another event just the two of us. We went to Cedar Grove for a kid's dance party. A bunch of moms and kids get together once a month at a coffee shop with a big community room and a very energetic story-teller/singer/dancer comes to do a program with the kids. Sofia absolutely loved all the dancing and songs, I think she really enjoyed watching the older kids too.

My boys don't have a chance of being anything but tough. Sofia is actually hugging them in this picture :)